AMDG
The Knights of Columbus is launching a new Pilgrim Icon Program in 2025 centered on the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The new prayer program — announced by Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly at the 142nd Supreme Convention in August — coincides with the 350th anniversary of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which began around 1674 in France.
Our
Lord’s apparitions to St. Faustina and message of divine mercy almost three
centuries later in the 1930s reinforce that message of intense love for each
one of us. The Divine Mercy devotion
focuses more on the meditation of our Lord’s passion. Furthermore, our Lord promised that when the
Divine Mercy Chaplet is recited in the presence of a dying person, He would
come to him/her. In those apparitions
Christ made many revelations to St. Faustina which as instructed, she recorded
in her book,
“Our Lord reminded [St. Margaret Mary] of that ancient and beautiful devotion, and she shared that gift with the world,….In the heart of Christ, we see the heart of the Father, and we ask Our Lord to help us make His heart our own, so that we may see and love in others what He sees and loves in us. That is what the world needs. And on the 350th anniversary of St. Margaret Mary’s visions, we will make this mission our own”, Patrick Kelly emphasized.
Supreme Knight
Patrick Kelly speaks about the Order’s new pilgrim icon of the Sacred Heart at
the Midyear Membership Meeting of State Deputies on Nov. 3 in National Harbor,
Md.
The Order’s founder, Blessed Fr. Michael McGivney, had a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart. Since childhood his family had in their home an ornate devotional plaque of the Sacred Heart that is still in the Order’s possession. In 1881, when Father McGivney accompanied convicted murderer Chip Smith to the gallows, this man on Death Row wore a Sacred Heart badge given to him by the priest. A century later, when Father McGivney’s body was exhumed in 1981, it was discovered that he had been buried with a cloth image of the Sacred Heart.
The
Knights selected a painting of the Sacred Heart by Italian artist Pompeo
Batoni, located in Rome’s Church of the Gesù, to be the centerpiece of the new
pilgrim icon program. A copy of the
image, blessed by the papal almoner, will soon be given to each K of C
jurisdiction and, beginning in 2025, will travel from council to council,
serving as the focus for prayer throughout the Order, perfect for the Holy Year
of Hope. The Knights did the same with over
100 reproduced copies of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe a few years ago. 
Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, with Supreme Officers and other K of C leaders, celebrates a votive Mass of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Sacred Heart Chapel of the Church of the Gesù in Rome on Oct. 23. Earlier in 2024, the chapel’s 1767 painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Italian artist Pompeo Batoni was chosen to be restored and reproduced for visits to the many councils as the centerpiece of the Order’s upcoming Pilgrim Icon Program in 2025.
During their visit to Rome for the unveiling of the newly restored baldacchino in St. Peter’s Basilica, Supreme Knight Kelly and other Supreme Officers gathered Oct. 23 at the Church of the Gesù for a votive Mass of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrated by Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori. Jesuit Father James Conn, superior of the Pontifical North American College’s Casa Santa Maria, concelebrated and gave the homily. The 325-year-old side chapel in which they gathered was renamed the Chapel of the Sacred Heart in 1920 when Batoni’s 1767 painting was placed above the altar. The Supreme Council had agreed to sponsor the restoration of the chapel, including Batoni’s painting, in honor of the 350th anniversary celebration.
In
his homily, Father Conn called devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus “the
symbol of the boundless and passionate love of God for humankind” and reflected
on the all-encompassing intentions of the traditional “Morning Offering”
prayers to the Sacred Heart. “It occurred to me that that is what we seek
as we contemplate the intentions of the Most Sacred Heart: What is it that he
desires of us and the world, seeking to redeem all mankind? It is our privilege, not just to reproduce
this image, but to reproduce the reality of the boundless and compassionate
love of God in our own lives and in our care for our brothers and
sisters.”
Pope
Francis echoes these themes in his new encyclical dedicated to the Sacred
Heart, Dilexit Nos (He Loves Us), which
was published the following day, Oct. 24.
“The heart of Christ, as the symbol of the deepest and most personal
source of his love for us, is the very core of the initial preaching of the
Gospel. It stands at the origin of our faith, as the wellspring that refreshes
and enlivens our Christian beliefs.” 
Knights process with the Sacred Heart pilgrim icon during a Mass and Holy Hour on January 3 at St. Mary’s Church where our founder Blessed Fr. Michael McGivney served in New Haven, Connecticut. (Photo by Paul Haring)
The Supreme Knight reflected on the Sacred Heart of Jesus in light of the encyclical, encouraging all Knights to make devotion to the Sacred Heart a priority in their families. Every home should have an image of the Sacred Heart in a prominent place of honor for the family as part of your domestic church.
An
artist’s depiction of an apparition of Our Lord to the Visitation Nun, St.
Margaret Mary Alacoque at the Monastery of the Visitation at Paray-le-Monial near the Loire River in East Central
France. Today the monastery is a shrine for all to
visit and pray. Notice the parallel with
the image of Divine Mercy. In 1830 and
again in 1864 her body was exhumed and her brain continued to be incorrupt 174
years after her death. Amidst
controversy and scrutiny the Jesuits championed her cause, devotion to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus (Communion on First Fridays, Eucharistic Adoration Holy
Hour on Thursdays, and celebrating the Feast of the Sacred Heart), which was
officially recognized by the Church 75 years after her death. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the symbol of
our Lord’s intense love for every one of us.
St. Margaret Mary is the patron saint of devotees of the Sacred Heart, and those suffering
with polio and from the loss of parents. Her feast day is
celebrated on October 16.
Our Lord made and astounding promise to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690 & Canonized 1920). In a series of visions between 1673-1675, He revealed the wonders of His love and asked her to spread the treasures of His goodness. "I PROMISE you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penance; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment”.
In this new year let’s resolve to make the nine First Fridays this year
and again next year in honor of the Sacred Heart. Let’s promote this devotion!
In another vision, Margaret Mary also stated that she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night from 11 pm to midnight in prayer, known as a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration in honor of Christ's agony in the Garden of Gethsemani with meditation, particularly appropriate on Holy Thursday. Eight days after the Feast of Corpus Christi we observe the Feast of the Sacred Heart.
